Mr. Speaker, this is an interesting debate as the debates usually are when we talk about agriculture. It is a very sad day when we get up in the House and talk about the problems on farms. Our producers put food on the tables of everybody in Canada and supply that same commodity to millions of people around the world. It is not just a tragedy but a crime that they cannot maintain a lifestyle where they can put food on their own tables.
I will tell the House of the kinds of subsidies we farmers have to put up with. The European farmer gets $175 an acre to sow his crop and grow it. That is right off the start. Then he is guaranteed that if there is a surplus they will at least pay $2 a bushel to the exporter to get rid of the product. That is what Canadian farmers are dealing with. It is disastrous out there in farmland today.
When the World Trade Organization was negotiating, our trade negotiators agreed to a 15% reduction in subsidies on farms. That is what everybody was supposed to follow. We reduced subsidies by 85%. We gave them an unlevel playing field that would break every single farmer in western Canada. This put the feed prices down to such a level that every farmer who had a buck went into a livestock operation. Governments encouraged that. Today the hog industry in Saskatchewan alone is losing $20 million every six months. How long do we think that industry can survive? It is impossible.
I was astounded when I picked up a paper with a backgrounder about what was going on. The Canadian Wheat Board suddenly realized that they are the lowest prices in the last four years. Where was this organization in 1995-96 when prices were the highest in the world? Instead of selling our grain the board allowed it to back up in our bins. It had a million bushels of wheat left over which was more wheat than it had the previous year.
Finally Mr. Beswick got fed up with this type of marketing and quit. He told western Canadian farmers that in the last year the board had lost western barley producers $180 million. That kind of marketing system does not work. The wheat board is there for a purpose. It is supposed to get us the best price, not the worst price. That is why farmers are in trouble. Did the Liberals know about this? I think they did. I think they had a policy in 1993.
No matter what happens with commodity prices, the Americans and the Europeans are going to look after their farmers. This is what the Americans have done so far. They just passed a bill that will give $3 billion in market losses to farmers in the U.S. They have agreed that law makers will give a tax break worth around $4 billion for farmers and small businesses.
The hon. gentleman from Brandon—Souris said farmers do not pay any taxes. I paid my property taxes last week. Grain prices in wheat and barley markets have been dropping by 40% to 70% but my property taxes have gone up by 9%. That is what happened to my input costs. That is what we are dealing with. Not only that, but look at the parts prices. If we want to fix a combine, a tractor, a lawnmower, the prices have escalated to points where we just cannot afford to operate these things any more.